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Felix Salm-Salm
| died = | placeofburial_label = | placeofburial = | placeofbirth = Anholt, Prussia | placeofdeath = Gravelotte, France | placeofburial_coordinates = | nickname = | allegiance = Kingdom of Prussia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, United States of America, Second Mexican Empire | branch = | serviceyears = | rank = Brigadier General (Union Army), Major (Prussian Army) | servicenumber = | unit = | commands = 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment | battles = Siege of Querétaro, Battle of Gravelotte | awards = | relations = | laterwork = }} Prince Felix Salm-Salm was born in Anholt, Prussia, 25 December 1828. Felix was the son of the reigning Prince zu Salm Salm. He grew up training to be a soldier at a cadet-school in Berlin, Germany and soon became an officer in the Prussian cavalry. Early on he participated in the First Schleswig War between Northern Germany and Denmark, where he demonstrated bravery in battle. After the war he joined the Austrian army for a short time but resigned. In 1861, he came to the United States and offered his services to the Union army in the American Civil War. He was given a colonel's commission and assigned to the staff of General Louis Blenker. It was at this time that he began to court a red-haired American woman of Indian descent named Agnes. Felix would marry her in August 1862. Agnes Salm-Salm would end up joining Felix on the battlefield because she could not bear being without him. That winter he took command of the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment but would only remain there through the winter. He was appointed colonel of the 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment in June, 1864, serving under General James B. Steedman in Tennessee and Georgia, and toward the end of the war was assigned to the command of the post at Atlanta. Here he would receive the rank of brigadier-general. After the American war was over, he offered his services to Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and embarked for Mexico in February, 1866. Maximilian was actively promoting American soldiers to migrate to Mexico after the war to improve relations with the country. Salm-Salm was an interesting case because most of the Americans who moved fought for the Confederacy. By the summer he was appointed colonel. He became the emperor's aide-de-camp and chief of his household. He was captured at Querétaro along with the emperor but not before he made a brave charge with his hussar cavalry in an attempt to save Maximilian from the surrounding Mexican Republican army under Benito Juárez. Soon after Maximilian's execution, he returned to Europe, re-entered the Prussian army as major in the grenadier guards, and was killed at the Battle of Gravelotte. His memoirs were edited by German author Otto von Corvin. category:1828 births Category:1870 deaths Category:People from Isselburg Category:Prussian Army personnel Category:Austrian soldiers Category:Union Army officers Category:Mexican soldiers Category:German military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Felix Salm Salm Category:People of the American Civil War de:Felix zu Salm-Salm